Thursday, May 16, 2013

Local Businesses are Advertising Well!

As
the Van Buren County SAFE Coalition continues efforts to enhance the quality of
life through a safer community, it is looking closely at environmental changes
that can reduce underage drinking.Because local businesses sell alcohol beverages, they undoubtedly share
the goal of the coalition to keep alcohol out of the hands of minors.

Members
of the coalition have received training about these environmental prevention
strategies through the Youth Leadership Institute (communities Mobilizing for
Change on Alcohol, or CMCA, training).They learned that evidence shows a minor’s likelihood of drinking is
impacted not only by the availability of alcohol, but by more subtle factors
such as the number of an establishments alcohol ads both inside and out,
placement of those ads, placement of alcohol, regularity of I.D. checks,
special promotions and age requirement signage.

The
SAFE Coalition designed an evaluation instrument to measure the advertising in
local alcohol retailers, all retailers in the county are scanned each
spring.In the spring of 2013, they
graded nine establishments with liquor licenses in Van Buren County and the
results reveal some great news:

oBoyd Grocery and
Casey’s both received overall grades of A!

oSix of the
establishments received a grade of B or higher for their overall grade.

oAll nine of the
establishments received a grade of B or higher for Alcohol Advertising.

oSeven of the
establishments received a grade of B or higher for Tobacco Advertising.

oSix of the
establishments had signage regarding age requirements for buying/ordering
alcohol and the subsequent penalties.

oAll nine
businesses improved or maintained their overall grade from the 2012 evaluation.

The
SAFE Coalition sent each business their results from the 2013 evaluations, and
a list of strategies establishments can employ to reduce underage
drinking.They also encouraged the
businesses to review the strategies they are already using.The coalition can help implement new
strategies to support establishment’s current ones.

Working together, we can have a positive effect on
reducing underage drinking and promoting a healthy community.For more information on these evaluations or
on the SAFE Coalition please contact us at 319-293-6412 or at info@vbsafecoalition.com.You can also see what kind of work the
coalition is doing online at the website: www.vbsafecoalition.com or on
Facebook: Van Buren County SAFE Coalition.